Last night’s game sucked, so I’m choosing to flush it and move onto Marian Hossa Day. Are we cool with that? The talent and skill difference between Boston and the Blackhawks last night was massive; that was the Blackhawks’ most lopsided loss of the year. So on to the next.
What’d Luke Richardson have to say about playing against Marian Hossa? About what you would expect. Hossa was a beast.
As a reminder, if you’re going to the UC today you’ll want to get there early. The doors to the atrium open at 2:30 and the party starts at 3:30. A host of former Hossa teammates will discuss him at 3:50 and then the banner goes up at 4:30. Game time is 6 PM CT.
Yesterday, I wrote about the eyebrow-raising number of times the Boston Bruins have had scouts in Chicago early this season. It’s noteworthy because they’re going for it this year, and the Blackhawks have two superstar veterans who might be perfect fits in Boston.
My reporting couples nicely with this report out of Boston that an NHL executive told Jimmy Murphy that Patrick Kane would “make a lot of sense” for the Bruins to pursue. And one quote from Murphy supports what I wrote on Saturday:
“Patrick Kane and the Bruins make a lot of sense,” the NHL Exec told BHN. “The Bruins were all in already but with this start, I’d say they’re full speed ahead and will do whatever it takes to get Patrice Bergeron one more Stanley Cup. They have cap issues now so they can’t really go hard after Kane or anyone, but they need to be laying down the foundation for acquiring a player like that.”
So when you read something like “they need to be laying down the foundation for acquiring a player like that” it means “watch for the Bruins to find a way or two to unload a modest amount of salary between now and the beginning of February so, if they want to and Kane is interested, they can make a smart, calculated move for him.
The hard part of that is making the right move financially without disrupting the incredible chemistry they have in that room. Remember: the Bruins had a blow-up when they signed Mitchell Miller and the entire roster stood up and said “Hell no!” to the front office, leading Boston management to back away from the relationship.
Throw this in your back pocket for later today:
Last night was a good night for a couple (future) Blackhawks in Boston. Drew Commesso and Ryan Greene were in action for BU. Commesso continued his strong play and Greene ripped home his sixth goal of the season to tie the game in the third. BU won the game in overtime. Greene continues to show incredibly well as a freshman for the Terriers.
In Seattle, the Thunderbirds put Kevin Korchinski (the Blackhawks’ first pick in the 2022 NHL Draft) on the ice to start the game with Nolan Allan (the Blackhawks’ first pick in the 2021 NHL Draft). Allan was just traded to Seattle earlier this week and now they’re playing together on the top pair. I’m fascinated to see how that plays. Like BU, Seattle won in overtime. Korchinski put four shots on net in the win.
I said I wasn’t going to spend much time on last night’s tail-whipping in Boston, but this is worth a minute of your time. Jack Han does a terrific job of showing how the Bruins move their bodies and the puck to beat the Blackhawks defense. This isn’t necessarily a knock on the Blackhawks’ approach as much as it shows us just how good the Bruins have it working right now. As Jack says, “Against unimaginative teams hell-bent on chucking perimeter shots and forcing seam passes, this approach can be very effective. Unfortunately the 2022-23 Bruins are not one of those teams.“
Finally, since this is the hockey section we fully support the throwing of hands. Even on a baseball diamond in Venezuela in mid-November.